Hillary Clinton: Europe must lead on plane react

Hillary Clinton says there’s “growing awareness” that Malaysia Airlines passenger plane was probably shot down by Russian insurgents — but argued that European leaders must “take the lead” on any action if that proves to be the case.

Clinton made the comments about the doomed plane in a wide-ranging interview with TV host Charlie Rose set to air Thursday night. Portions of the taped interview were released ahead of airtime.

The former secretary of state, who’s pondering a second run for the presidency in 2016, said it takes some advance planning to down a jetliner from the height it would have been traveling at over that part of Ukraine.

“There does seem to be some growing awareness that it probably had to be Russian insurgents,” Clinton said. “Now, how we determine that will require some forensics, but then if there is evidence pointing in that direction, the equipment had to have come from Russia. What more the Russians may or may not have done, we don’t know.”

Asked about what the United States should do if there’s clear evidence Russia was involved, she said the responsibility really falls to Europe. The U.S. has been clear about its view of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the new Ukrainian leadership, she said.

“As you know, the Europeans have tried to figure out the best way forward,” she said. “I was recently in Europe. A lot of questions about whether or not Russia was really the aggressor, whether or not Putin was really dangerous, how could that be evaluated.

“From my perspective — and I have the benefit of not being in the government — if there is evidence linking Russia to this, that should inspire the Europeans to do much more…”

Clinton added that if Russia keeps supporting the insurgents, “there’s a lot more that needs to be done,” including European leaders putting “Putin on notice that he has gone too far and we are not going to stand idly by.”

“So Europeans have to be the ones to take the lead on this,” she said. “It was a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over European territory. There should be outrage in European capitals.”